The present invention relates generally to techniques in which structures have oblique parts or surfaces. For example, microstructures or walls may have parts that extend obliquely relative to a substrate's surface.
Various techniques have been developed for producing structures with one or more dimensions smaller than 1 mm. In particular, some techniques for producing such structures are referred to as “microfabrication.” Examples of microfabrication include various techniques for depositing materials such as sputter deposition, evaporation techniques, plating techniques, spin coating, and other such techniques; techniques for patterning materials, such as photolithography; techniques for polishing, planarizing, or otherwise modifying exposed surfaces of materials; and so forth.
Various types of structures with oblique parts have been proposed. For example, bent metal parts with oblique angles have been used in connectors and for other purposes in electronic assemblies, sometimes being bonded to a printed circuit board or other substrate or structure, such as by soldering or gluing.
Also, spring contacts and other microfabricated structures have been proposed in which parts extend obliquely from a surface. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,184,053 and 6,727,580, for example, describe spring contact elements, each with a base end, a contact end, and a central body portion. The contact end is offset horizontally and vertically from the base end. The elements are fabricated by depositing at least one layer of metallic material into openings defined in masking layers deposited on a surface of a substrate. Other techniques for spring contacts and similar structures are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,613,861; 6,528,350; and 6,616,966 and U.S. Patent Application Pub. No. 2003/0199179-A1.
Previous techniques are limited, however, in their ability to produce a wide variety of structures such as cantilevers or walls with oblique parts or surfaces. It would therefore be advantageous to have additional techniques for structures with oblique parts or surfaces.